Alchemical Art by the help of distinct degrees has before been said generally, and to repeat the same thing here anew is vain. To go on to specialities and briefly explain the practical method, let it be known that all cannot be separated by one and the same process; that is to say, the water, spirit, liquid, oil, etc., from herbs, flowers, seeds, leaves, roots, trees, fruits, woods, according to the grade of distillation.
Herbs require one process, flowers another, seeds another, leaves another, roots another, trees, stalks, and stems another, fruits another, woods another, etc. And in this grade of distillation the four degrees of fire have to be considered. The first degree of fire is the Balneum Mariæ. This is the distillation made in water. The second degree of fire is distillation made in ashes. The third is in sand, the fourth in free fire, as also distillation is generally made by aqua fortis and other violent waters. Herbs, flowers, seeds, and the like, require the first degree of fire. Leaves, fruits, etc., need the second. Roots, branches, and trunks of trees, etc., require the third. Timber and the like require the fourth. Each of these substances must be minutely cut up or pounded before being brought into the still. So much has been said as to the distillation of waters and vegetable substances. As regards the separation and distillation of oils the same process must be followed as we have spoken of in the separation of waters, except that, for the most part, they have to be distilled by descent. They cannot, like waters, ascend in the still; therefore, in this case the process has to be changed. Liquids, however, are not separated like waters and oils, by distillation, but are squeezed out from their corporeal substances under a press. And here it should be known that some oils, in like manner, just as liquids, are squeezed out from their corporeal substances and separated by means of the press for this reason, that they can bear scarcely any combustion or heat of the fire, but acquire therefrom an unpleasant odour. Of this kind are the oils of almonds, nuts, hard eggs, and the like. This also is to be noted, that all oils, if they are prepared or coagulated according to Spagyric and Alchemical Art, pour forth varnish, electuary, gum, or a kind of resin, which might also be called a sulphur; and if the species left in the still were calcined and reduced to ashes, alkali could be extracted and separated from them with simple warm water alone. The ash which is left is called dead earth, nor can anything more be produced or separated from it.
Concerning the Separation of Animals.
It is necessary to preface the separation or anatomy of animals by shewing how the blood, flesh, bones, skin, intestines, etc., stand each by itself, and then how each is separated by Spagyric Art. In this part the separations are principally four. The first draws forth from the blood a watery and phlegmatic moisture. For when the blood has been separated in this manner, according to the process handed down in the book on Conservations,[1] an
- ↑ That is, the Preservations of Natural Things.—De Natura Rerum, Book III.
